To fully understand what is happening right now you need to walk a mile in a firearms licence holder’s shoes. There are quite a few different kinds of licences in New Zealand today so the best way to bring what is happening home to those of you who do not have a firearms licence is to compare what is happening to a type of licence that you do currently hold.
Let’s say that you currently hold a driver’s licence and that you applied to renew it 4 months before it was due to expire. Four months have passed. The government department has taken your payment but failed to provide you with a new driving licence, so you now find yourself with an expired licence.
The head of the licensing department says that even though the delay is the department’s fault you may no longer drive until they get around to issuing your new license. This means that you can no longer drive yourself to work and that if you take the risk and get caught that you will be fined a very large sum of money.
But wait…. there’s more.
Until your licence is renewed you must put your car, truck or motorbike into the garage of someone whose licence has not yet expired. You are no longer allowed to keep it on your property even though you paid a fortune for a very secure garage with high tech security. The problem with this so-called solution is that everyone you know uses their garage to store their car or cars. No one has room for your vehicle! You are now in an impossible situation through no fault of your own.
To make matters worse you are a teacher. You paid the amount required to renew your teaching registration months earlier but the government department has failed to process your renewal due to a backlog. Even though the delay is no fault of yours your employer has been notified that, until the department gets around to issuing your updated practising certificate, you are no longer permitted to teach students.
But wait… there’s more.
Your employer has also been told that without your updated registration you are no longer a fit and proper person to be around students so you are not allowed to even mark or prepare lessons and must stay away from the school premises until your registration has been processed.
Next thing you know your partner who owns and runs a bar is told that there is a backlog of 3-4 months for processing alcohol licence renewals. Your partner is told that until the bar licence is renewed they must stop selling alcohol to customers and can only sell non-alcoholic drinks and food.
But wait… there’s more.
Your partner is also told on pain of a very large fine that for the duration of the wait for the license to be renewed they must move all their alcohol stock (as well as the apparatus used to serve the alcohol such as the taps that connect to the barrels) to the premises of a bar that does have a licence to be stored there until the department gets around to processing the renewal which in some cases has taken more than a year to complete!
Are you now starting to see how completely unacceptable the treatment of firearms owners in this country is?
Since the delay is completely the fault of the Police, the licence holders should all be told that they will not be prosecuted for having an expired license unless they failed to apply to renew it before it was due to expire.
They should not be expected to move their firearms from secure storage in their gun safes to another person’s gun safe. Their firearms are already stored safely as these are renewals we are talking about, not new applications. These are people who have already been checked and approved as fit and proper people to use and store firearms.
They should not be prevented from taking part in their sport. They have paid for their licence yet they are not getting the use of it.
Imagine if you paid $500 in January 2021 for a licence to allow you unlimited access to the local Movie theatre for all of 2021 but then it took them till November to approve it and send it to you.
Firearms owners are not getting what they have paid for. Not only are they being ripped off but they are being penalised as well.
